Under the Mistletoe
by RainbowSerenity
Summary: /BalthierVaan/ Balthier didn't quite know about the superstition surrounding mistletoe, but he's all too happy to learn about it from a certain younger sky pirate... For Gwyn!


Christmas!fic is mandatory this time of year. Oh yes.

This one is dedicated to **Ainahim Twilightbait** because she is pretty much fabulous and she's a totally epic Vaan in our FF12 roleplays. –glomp-

**Under the Mistletoe  
**

Vaan hummed lightly to himself as he readjusted the wreath hanging on the front of Migelo's shop. A few wandering residents of Rabanastre paused and smiled at him for the decorating effort, and he would cheerily wave back to them. Ever since Vayne's demise, people had seemed especially happy. The fact that Christmas was coming probably helped, too.

"Don't you think you're going a little overboard?" Penelo had suddenly appeared next to Vaan, hands on her hips as she smiled up at her friend. "You spent all of yesterday arranging garland inside the shop. You're lucky Migelo likes Christmas as much as you do, or he'd be trying to hang you with it."

"Don't be so dramatic," Vaan replied, finally satisfied that the wreath was hung perfectly. It was pretty; green and covered with amaryllises – Christmas lilies. "You know Migelo's not that violent. He'd probably try to pass it off as some new healing herb and sell it instead."

Penelo giggled. "Yeah, you're right." She and Vaan walked back inside the shop, mindful of the customers. "Do we have any other decorations that you're going to put up?"

"Hmm..." Vaan put his hands on his hips, glancing around the store. Every available inch that wasn't covered in merchandise had some sort of holiday decoration. It was impossible to look anywhere and not be reminded of Christmas.

Except…

Vaan looked up. The ceiling. The ceiling was totally bare and lame, without so much of a_hint_ of Christmas splendor. How boring.

He pointed up, directly above their heads. "I need something I can hang up there," he said. "The ceiling needs to get into the spirit too, you know."

Penelo tilted her head, lost in thought for a moment before a sly smile appeared on her face. "I know something you can put up there."

"What?"

Her smile grew wider and wider until she finally burst into a fit of giggles, nudging Vaan's arm with her elbow. "Mistletoe! There's not a better way to decorate the ceiling!"

Vaan raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, Penelo. I don't think Migelo wants his shop to turn into how the Sandsea is after dark."

She waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. Hang it up in a corner where he won't find it, but customers will. After all that's happened, I think there are people who could definitely use some romance, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess." Vaan grinned. "Do you know if we have any?"

"I'm pretty sure there's a sprig in the box of decorations in the back room somewhere. Lemme go check." She dashed off to look and Vaan wandered around to the corners of the store and climbed a short stepladder, trying to find a spot to hang some mistletoe where Migelo wouldn't find it and get some unsuspecting Viera to stand under it with him.

Speaking of Viera...

"Fran! Balthier!" Vaan greeted when he saw his friends waltz into the shop. Both of them never failed to amaze him – they seemed more elegant every time he saw them.

"Ah, Vaan," Balthier replied, casually waving a hand. "I was hoping we'd find you here. I need to ask you a few things about what you've done to the _Strahl_..." Fran rolled her eyes at her partner and walked off, most likely to buy provisions.

"Oh, sure." Vaan started to come down from the stepladder when Penelo suddenly bounced in, waving a small green plant in front of her face.

"I've got it!" she said in a sing-song voice.

"You do –" the blond sky pirate began to ask, but he misjudged where to step and stumbled off of the stepladder, nearly crashing into Balthier and sending both of them to the floor.

Luckily, though, Balthier was rather steady on his feet and easily caught Vaan, a smirk appearing on his face as he did so. "Well Vaan, I've heard others falling for me, but not quite so easily as this."

"Shut up," Vaan mumbled, hurriedly standing up, a light blush on his face. He pointedly ignored Balthier and turned to Penelo instead. "So you found it?"

Penelo, who had seen the whole exchange, just smiled knowingly and handed the sprig to Vaan. "Here. Make sure you hang it somewhere..._special_." She smiled again and bounded off, out of sight of the two sky pirates.

"Hmph," Vaan muttered, looking down at the plant and twirling it in his fingers.

Balthier just raised an eyebrow. "What on earth is that?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"If I had, I wouldn't have asked, now would I?"

Vaan blinked. "No, I guess not." He held the sprig up in front of his face, inwardly pleased that he could teach Balthier something for a change. "This is called mistletoe. There's some silly tradition attached to it that if two people stand under it at the same time, they have to kiss."

Balthier raised his other eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah." The younger boy shrugged. "I don't think anybody follows it any more, though. I'm just hanging it up as a decoration."

The older sky pirate chuckled. "What a shame."

Vaan's eyes widened, the blush back on his face full-force. "W-What!?"

A smirk crossed his face as Balthier leaned forward, capturing Vaan's lips in a simple kiss, careful to stay directly under the mistletoe. Vaan stared, his eyes still wide, until Balthier's mouth in such a way that he instinctively closed his eyes, his mind forgetting about everything except the man kissing him.

When Balthier pulled back a few long moments later, Vaan felt surprised that he was still holding the mistletoe above their heads. Balthier apparently found this amusing also and chuckled.

"You'll have to let me know where you plan on hanging that thing," he said, still looking as cocky as ever. "I believe I may be paying more visits under it – as long as you're the one standing there, of course." With that and another smirk, he spun on his heel and walked off, leaving an astonished and open-mouthed Vaan behind.

_Well._ The younger sky pirate cleared his throat and got back on the stepladder, hanging up the mistletoe over a shelf of potions. He'd have to remember to ask Migelo if he could take on restocking them for awhile...

--

-gigglesnort-

A **review **would be much appreciated:3 Happy Holidays, everybody!


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